This is one of a series of news items from abstracts of studies presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine as complied by Dr. David Meldrum, Scientific Director of Reproductive Partners. We appreciate the enormous amount of work it takes to compile and comment on these abstracts.

 Size does matter, at least according to two poster presentations at the meeting.

In one presentation, fibroid size was related to pregnancy complications. Fibroid size over 8 cm was associated with increased complications of  threatened abortion, and pain (43% had pain compared to 18% with fibroids under 8 cm). This high incidence of pregnancy complications argues for removal before pregnancy when fibroid size is over 8 cm. Pain during pregnancy is not uncommon even with smaller fibroids.

In a second poster presentation, the number of fibroids over 5 cm in size was associated with preterm delivery and the total number of fibroids was associated with arrest of labor.

In infertility the location of even smaller fibroids can be critical.

  The message here is that fibroids should be carefully evaluated for size and position before attempting pregnancy or fertility treatment .